Charles Dickens' line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is a little extreme for last Saturday's graduation, but it captures the bittersweet sentiment. The ceremony marked both an ending and a beginning for the young women who've spent nearly two years (longer than normal due to some delays caused by the Jos crises at the beginning of the year) learning their craft and attending weekday discipleship classes. Knit one, purl two. Manually pump the sewing machine. Memorize bible verses. Sit in a small room with a dozen other students, some of whom are HIV positive, five days a week and you really get to know each other. To say that they'll miss each other is an understatement.
Yet there's great joy knowing that each of them is now equipped with their own sewing or knitting machine. They have the skills and the equipment to be entrepreneurs. Whether they sew or knit for just a few people, or work their way to own their own shops, is up to them and their personal situations. But each of them has a new world of possibilities.
Please join me in prayer that these new graduates take this free gift of education and apply it wholeheartedly to their futures.
(I took the first photo in August 2009 after I gave them photos from Susan Kieft. The other photos are from Saturday's graduation, with a knitting machine and scissors.)
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